Ogoni moves to permanently resolve decades of oil exploration conflicts

By Mark Lenu

The Ogoni people have again initiated moves that would chart the path to a permanent resolution of over three decades of conflicts with the government and Shell over oil exploration and underdevelopment.

Addressing a congress recently held, the President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke said it’s time to permanently solve the Ogoni problem. noting that the Ogoni people must stand up to defeat both internal and external repression.

According to him, “we launched the struggle in 1990. We are thirty four years into it and the problem was that we were protesting underdevelopment.”

He expressed dismay over the growing number of splinter groups in Ogoni, attributing it to the commercialization of the struggle and therefore urged the Ogoni people to be ready and committed to resolve the problem permanently.

At the end of the deliberations, the Congress resolved as follows:

1. The Congress demanded compensation for livelihood losses due to decades of oil pollution.
2. The Congress resolved to set up a resolution committee that would bring everybody including dissenting voices together.
3. The congress resolved that the leadership of MOOP should set up a conflict resolution committee to address inter and intra communal conflicts in Ogoni.